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Jim 24, 1930 D. E. LEWELLEN 1,768,325.

CONTROL MECHANISM FOR PAPER MAKING IACHINES Filed June 27, 1928 2Sheets-Sheet 1 ElKQm n G w vk gwtwntow z DarcgE LeweiienGranuilleRzecher June 24, 1930. D. E. LEWELLEN ET AL 1,768,325

CONTROL MECHANISM FOR PAPER MAKING MACHINES Filed June 27. 1928 2SheetsSheet 2 gnwntow DarcyELewellen GranuiIleRZw/rer Patented June 24,1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE mac! n. nnwnnnmw, or connmms, mnraiu,Ann eamvmn ie. woman, or am- DLETOWN, OHIO CONTROL MECHANISM FOR rnmuameiucnnms Application am June 27, ms. semira' aaam.

Our invention relates to devices for controlling the thickness of pa rin a aper making machine. It is an ohiect of t e invention to provide adevice responsive to variations in the thickness of the pa er passingthrough the machine for contro ling the thickness of the paper, in orderto keep it at a predetermined thickness.

t is a further object of the invention to provide a controlling devicewhich shall re ulate the thickness of the paper by contriling the speedwith which the strip of paper asses through the paper making machine.

Still another object is to provide a control l6 device for paper makingmachines which shall be sensitive to the slightest variation in thethickness of the paper, and which will control the machine so as to keepthe paper within a predetermined thickness, and to do 2 this with aprecision unknown in the present art of paper making.

Referring to the accompanyin drawings which are made a art hereof an onwhich similar reference c aracters indicate similar 7 Figure 1 is anelevational view of a paper making machine showing-the application of mycontrol device thereto,

Figure 2, an elevation of the 0 trolling apparatus,

Figure 3, a plan view of the same,

Figure 4, an enlarged view in elevation of the gaging device, and

Figure 5, an enlarged view in the control device.

In a copending application of D. E. Lewellen and Granville R. ZecherSerial No. 272,255, filed April 23, 1928, for control mechanism forpaper making machines, is disclosed a paper making machine having acontrolling device thereon for controlling the thickness of the paper bycontrollin the amount of stock fed to the filler rolls 0 the papermaking machine. In that device slight variations in the thickness of thepaper cause operation of devices for supplying only suflicient stock tothe machine to bring the paper up to the required thickness, or toreduce the stock so as to bring the thickness down to accurate thicknessin case the paper speed conelevation of "speed of the engine.

going through the machine is too thick. The evice forming the-subjectmatter of the a plication now presented controls the thickness of thepaper by controlling the s d with which it passes through the mac ine.It should be very-clear that if the amount of stock being fed to thefiller rolls remains constant, the thickness of the paper may be variedby varying the speed with which the paper travels through t e machine.In the device herein presented the stock ates are open to apredetermined point an remain so, and the speed of travel of the paperthrough the machine is varied. This is done by varying the speed of theengine which drives the rolls and cylinders which co'ntrol the speed ofthe paper passing through the machine. a

The speed of the engine is varied by varying the relative speed of themain drive wheel and a governor which controls, the In steam en" inescon trolled by centrifugal governors t e governor runs at a more or lessconstant speed; Any change between the relative speed of the mam drivewheel and the speed of the centrifugalgovernor will affect the speed ofthe engine, while the governor will run substantially with the samespeed. Itmay readily be seen therefore that to change the speed of theengine it is onl necessary to change the relative speed of the engineand the governor. In our device we provide for changing the relativespeed of the engine and the governor by using a well known Lewellenvariable speed transmission for driving the centrifugal governor. Acontrol device'sensitive to variations in the thickness of the papercauses operation of a motor which is geared to the shifting screw of thevariable speed transmission to drive it in the proper direction tochange the speed ratio b etween the engine governor and the engine crankshaft, to bring about the desired change ofspeed in the engine.

In the drawings, numeral. 10 indicates the usual stock box from whichaper, flows through pipes 11, 12 an -13 to the filler cylinders 14, 15and 16. These cylinders deposit the paperon a felt belt 17, m

which passes between a series of rolls 18 and a belt 19 running over aseries of rolls 20. The paper emer es from the last rolls 18 and 20 as astri 0 paper 21 now of suificient strength to supported without theassistance of belts. TlllS strip of pa er passes over a roll 22, thencebetween ca 'pering rolls 23 and 24 of the ga 'ng device and passesthence to drying ro ls 25. All the rolls just mentioned except rolls 22,23 and 24 are driven by means of belts 26 on pulleys 27 mounted on ashaft 28, the rolls 22, 23 and 24 being driven by the paper strip 21 asit passes over them. The shaft 28 is driven by an engine 29 throughmeans of a belt 30 driving a pulley 31 on the said shaft 28. a

The gaging device, shown as a whole at 33, anda controlling device shownat 34 operate switches which operate a motor 35 which latter controlsthe variable speed transmission shown as a whole at 36. The gagingdevice consists of two rollers 23 and 24. The roller 24 is mounted inbearings on the framework of the machine. The roller 23 is rotatablymounted in bearin on the outer end of an arm TlllS arm is pivotallymounted on a pin 71' and has a short inte ral arm 72 extending at r' htangles to t e arm 70. An L-shaped arm 7 3 is pivoted also on the pin 70.A link 74 passes loosely through a bore in the end of the arm 72 and isattached to the arm 73 at 75. A compression spring 76' surrounds thelink 74 and is positioned between the arm 7 2 and a washer 77 on theouter end of the link 74. The arm 70 has a rearwardly extending end 78on which is adjustably mounted a weight 79. The arm 73 has on its upperside, adjacent the end, a knife edge 80 adapted to engage a lever 81near the ivot point 82. The lever 81 has also a knife edge 83 whichengages the lower side of a lever 84. This lever is pivoted at 85 andhas on its outer end rack teeth 86 adapted to engage a pinion 87. Apointer 88 is secured upon the pinion. To give it greater inertia thepointer 88 has a weight 89 secured thereto. This pointer 88 has adownwardly extending arm 90 adapted to engage at times with one of thecontact points 91, 92 and 93. The arm 90 also carries a binding post 94.lVires 95, 96, 97 and 98 are attached res ectively to the points 94, 93,91 and 92. hese wires connect with relay switches in circuit with themotor 35 as more fully described in the copending application abovereferred to.

From the foregoing description it may clearly be seen that any movementof the roller 23 will be magnified through the levers and arms 70, 73,81, 84 and rack bar 86 to move the pointer arm 88. If, therefore, athick strip of paper-21 passes between the rollers 23 and 24 the roller23 will be raised and through the lever mechanism just described willswing the contact arm 90 to enga e the contact 93. If the paper becomest inner than desired when it passes between the rollers, the roller 23will drop and, through the magnified motion just indicated, the contactarm 90 will swing to engage with contact point' 91. The weight 89provides means for holding the arm against constant oscillation. Thespring 76 normally holds the arm 72 and 73 in contact.

If chips or small objects pass between the rollers 23 and 24 the springwill yield rather than move the weighted pointer arm 88 due to theinertia of the weight 89. The weight 79 balances the roll 23.

As more fully described in the copending application above referred to,the motor 35 does not operate continuously when the arm 90 is in contactwith either 91 or 93 but it operates intermittently when the arm 90 isin either of the positions just mentioned.

The mechanism for imparting intermittent operatin impulses to the motoris shown as a w ole at 34 and is the same as that described in thecopending application. This mechanism consists of a cam 99 operativelyconnected through a system of gears 100 with the roll 22. This train ofgears is arranged so that the cam 99 is driven through one revolution ina time somewhat greater than that required for the stock to pass fromthe stock box 10 to the rollers 23 and 24. The reason for this willlater be evident. An arm 101 is pivoted so as to have its outer end 102rest upon and engage the outer surface of the cam 99. A deep notch 103in the under side of the end 102 allows this end of the arm to drop downafter it has passed over the highest point of the cam indicated at 104.The arm 101 carries a contact point 105 adapted to engage a contact 106on an arm 107. Wires 108 and 109 are attached respectively to thecontact points 105 and 106. These wires lead to a relay in circuit withthe motor. 35 as described in the application referred to. When the arm90 is in contact with the point 93 the motor will be operatedintermittently for a short period. The periods vary at intervalssomewhat longer than the time required for the paper to pass from thestock box to the gaging rolls 23 and 24 as indicated. The motor 35 istherefore operated at short intervals intermittently whenever the gagingdevice 33 has its contacting arm moved to close the circuit to themotor. Instead of operating the gates in the stock box 10 as done in theapplication referred to, the motor is geared to and drives a shaft 37which controls the relative speed of the cones 38 and 39 of the variablespeed transmission. The variable speed transmission device shown as awhole in Fig. 3 may be any well known transmission device, such forexample as that shown in a patent to Lewellen #1,377,593 granted May10,1921. a

As shown in Fig. 2 the variable speed transmission forms the drivingconnection between the crank shaft of the engine and a centrifugalgovernor 40. The driving connection is as follows: A belt 41 on a pulley42 on the end of the crank shaft 43 of the "engine forms drivingconnection between the said shaft and a pulley 44 on the outer end of ashaft 45 by means of which the cone 38 is driven. A belt 46 formsdriving connec tion between the cone 38'and the cone 39 The collars 47and 48 are geared to the shafts 45 and 49 respectively so as to beslidable on the shafts and rotatable therewith. Levers 50 and 51ivotally connected at 52 and 53 are pivoted also at 54, 55, 56 and 57 tothe collars 48, 47, 58 and 59 respectively. 'A shaft 37 having righthand and left hand threads 60 and 61 respectively is screw threadedthrough the ends of the levers 50 and 51 respectively. On the outer endof the shaft 49 is a bevel gear 62 which meshes with a similar bevelgear 63 on the lower end of the shaft 64 of the centrifugal governor.The operative connection between the-governor and the throttle of theengine is of well known structure, the details of which need not beshown. The motor 35 drives the shaft 37 through driving connection shownas a gear 65, shaft 66, gear 67, meshing with a gear 68 held betweencollars (9 and 70. The collar 70 has a bevel gear-71. which meshes witha like gear 72. The gear 72 is secured on the end of the shaft 37.Rotation of the motor 35 in either direction therefore will rotate theshaft 37 to change the relative speeds of the cones 38 and 39. Aspreviously stated, the motor 35 is operated only when the paper passingbetween the calipering rolls 23 and 24 is either above or below apredetermined thickness. If the paper passing between the saidcalipering rolls is too thick the motor 35 will be operated in adirection so as to rotate the shaft to change the ratio of the cones 38and 39 so as to drive the centrifugal governor at a speed relativelyslower than the speed at which it has just been driven. This will causethe main engine crank shaft to rotate at an increased speed. This willspeed up movement of the strip of 7 paper through the machine, which asa consequence will thin the sheet of paper down because, since theamount of stock being delivered to the machine remains the same, thesame amount of stock will now be covered over a longer strip of paper,with the obvious result of makin the paper thinner.

A signal box 75 has white, green and red lights positioned therein toindicate whether the paper passing through the machine is the rightthickness, or whether it is too thick or too thin. If too thick a redlight will show, if too thin a green light will show, and if just righta white light will show. The cabinet indicated as a whole at 76 containsthe electrical connecting switches, etc. The device shown at 77 is atachometer which indicates the speed of travel of the'paper through themachine. This tachometer is controlled by a generator 78 which hasdriving connection with the main driving shaft 28. Since the speedof thepaper in feet per second is directly-controlled by the speed of theshaft 28 the tachometer 77 ma he graduated to show the speed of travel 0the paper through the machine. The tachometer-is operated by a.generator 78 driven from the shaft 28.

While we have shown our device as responding to variations in thethickness of t e paper, it is obvious that it might equally be adaptedfor controllin the paper in response to variations in t e wei ht of thepaper. For example, we have s own it as an improvement over the controldevice described in the application Serial No. 272,255 above referredto, by which the paper is controlled by variations in its thickness.Instead of the thickness control device, we might use the weightcontroldevice shown in the application of D. E. Lewellen, Serial No. 268,187filed April 7, 1928, for control mechanism 7 for paper making machines.The speed of travel of the paper obviously determines the weight of thepaper as a finished article.

While we have shown and described this invention as used in a papermaking m hine it is obvious that its use is not restricte to a machinefor making paper. It could obviously be used for controlling thethickness of any product which is made in sheet form in a mannersomewhat similar to the making of ]paper.

t will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes maybe made in our device without departing from the spirit of theinvention, and we, therefore, do not limit ourselves to what is shown inthe drawings and described in the specification, but .only as set forthin the appended claims.

Having thus fully described our said in-.

vention, what we claim as new and desire to paper through the machine,the said speed varying means operatin intermittently for short durationswhen t e thickness of the paper varies from predetermined standards,substantially as set forth.

2. A machine for making products in sheet governinform comprising meansfor feeding sheet forming material to the machine,- means for movingsaid material through the machine, means for varying the speed of saidlast named means whereby the thickness of the sheet ma be varied, andmeans for controlling sai last named means in response to variations inthe thickness of the sheet, the said speed varying means operatingintermittently at predetermined intervals and for redetermineddurations, substantially as set orth.

3. In a machine for-making products in sheet form, means for controllingthe thickness of the product comprising means for feeding sheet formingmaterial to the machine, means for moving a sheet through the machine,means for varying its speed of travel through the machine and meansresponsive to variation in its thickness at a predetermined point in itstravel through the machine for varying its speed of travel through themachine, and means limiting operation of the speed varying means topredetermined intervals and predetermined durations, substantially asset forth.

4. In a machine for making products in sheet form, means for feedingsheet forming material to the machine, means for moving the sheetthrough the machine, a motor for driving the said last named means, agovernor adapted to control the speed of the motor, a gaging deviceresponsive to variations in the thickness of the product as it passes agiven point in its travel through the machine, the said device beingoperatively connected to means for varying the relative speed of thesaid motor and the said device, whereby the relative speeds o the motorand the governor may be varied in response to variations in thethickness of the paperas it asses tlirou h the gaging device,substantial y as set fOf 'l.

5. A control device for paper making machines comprising means forfeeding paper stock to the machine, means for moving the stock throughthe machine to form a sheet of paper, a motor for driving said means, acentrifugal governor for controlling the speed ofsaid motor, a variablespeed transmission operatively connecting said motor and saidcentrifugal governor, a device responsive'to variations in the thicknessof t e paper passing through a given point in the machine, an electricmotor controllable by said last named device, and means wherebyoperation of said last named motor will vary the relative speed betweenthe first named motor and the centrifugal governor, whereby'the speed ofthe first named motor may be varied in response to variations in thethickness of the paper, substantially as setforth.

6. In a paper making machine, the com- -bination of a change speed drivefor regu- 'lating the thickness of the paper, of means for operatin saidchange speed device, a gage res onsive to variations in the thickness oft 0 paper arranged to'control operation of the change speed device, andmeans limiting the operation of said change speed device topredetermined intervals and predetermine durations, substantially as setforth.

7. In a paper making machine, gage operated when the thickness of thepaper varies from predetermined limits in control of means for varyingthe speed of travel of the paper through the machine, and means limitmgthe operation of said control means to predetermined intervals andpredetermined durations, substantially as set forth.

8. In a paper making machine, means for I keeping the thickness of thepaper within predetermined limits comprising a ga e means for varyingthe speed of travel of t e paper through the machine, the said speedvariations operating in response to movements of the said gage and meansfor causing operation of said speed varying means during predeterminedintervals only, substantially as set forth.

9. The combination with a paper makin machine, of a paper thickness gagemounted at a oint in said machine where the paper is su ciently formedto determine its thickness, means controlled by saidgage for changingthe speed of travel of the aper through the machine to vary the thicness within desired limits, and means for interrupting the o eration ofsaid last named means at pre etermined intervals, substantially as setforth.

10. In a paper machine, a gaging device adapted to respond to variationsin the thickness of the paper passing through the machine, the saiddevice being in control of 'means for varying the s eed of travel of thepaper through the mac inc, and means for limiting the operation of saidspeed controlling means to predetermined durations, substantially as setforth.

11. In a paper maln'ng machine, stock feeding means, means operable tomove the paper through the machine, a motor, a change speed driveconnection between the motor and the paper moving means, a gageresponsive to variations in the thickness of the paper passin throughthe machine, means controlled y said ga e for varying the speed of themotor and t e paper moving means, whereby changes in the thickness ofthe paper will vary the speed of the paper through the machine and meansfor limiting operation of the speed varying means to predetermineddurations, substantially as set forth.

12. In a paper ,maki machine, a gage responsive to variations in thethickness of the paper, means for moving .the paper through the machine,means for changin the speed of travel of the paper throug the machine,the said last named means be? ing controlled by the gage to operate tovary the thickness of the aper as it passes through the machine, anmeans operated in timed relation with the speed of the paper passingthrough the machine for limiting operation of t e speed changing meansto predetermined durations, substantially as set forth.

13. In a paper making machine, means responsive to variations in thethickness of the paper, means for movin the paper through the machine,means or changing the speed of travel of the paper through the machine,the said last named means being controlled by the gage to operate tovary the thickness of the paper as it asses through the machine, thesa1d speed c anging means operating intermittently and throughpredetermined durations, substantially as set forth.

14. In a paper making machine, in combination a gage responsive-tovariations in the thickness of the paper, means for moving the paperthrou h the machine, means for varyingits s eeg of travel through themachine the sai last named means bein controlled by the said gage, and acontro device limiting operation of the speed varyin means to shortpredetermined durations, substantially as set forth.

15. In a paper making machine, means for keeping the paper apredetermined thickness comprising means for moving the paper throughthe machine, means for controlling its speed of travel throu h themachine, a gage adapted to respon to variations in the thickness of thepaper, electroresponsive means controlled by the said gage for operatingthe said speed control means for the paper, and means limiting operationof said electro responsive means to predetermined intervals and forpredetermined durations, substantially as set forth.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands at Middletown, Ohio,this 9th day of June, A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-eight.

DARCY E. LEW'ELLEN. GRANVILLE R. ZECHER.

